Social media giant Facebook, with over 2 billion active users, created its blockchain team in May 2018. Now, one year later, details of Facebook’s plans are still sparse and mostly unconfirmed. Facebook is very secretive about its plans, but if it does launch its rumoured stablecoin, it could ...

Banks struggle to evolve to the changing customer needs and expectations and to introduce latest technologies. In a world where cost, time to market and flexibility are key business drivers, it is painful to see that the time and price for implementing changes in banking applications has increased c...

There has been a large amount of hesitation from the banking industry as a whole to become involved with cryptocurrency .This most likely stems from the fact that the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency has made it the payment form of choice for terrorists and other people who want to engage in crimi...

The unique strength of blockchain is authenticating “stuff” to enable trust between partners. Even though blockchain is frequently in the news, it is still poorly understood. Conventional wisdom is that blockchain essentially concerns cryptocurrency speculation, or at the very least, peo...

Many college and universities are adding banking functions, like that of a debit or credit card, to student identification cards and charging students fees and interest for the use. Student IDs are typically used to enter campus buildings, access online sites and check out library books. But some sc...

Deeply woven into the fabric of the United States is the prospect of upward economic mobility and the pursuit of the American Dream. However, U.S. consumers today increasingly feel the American Dream is out of reach due to financial instability. They desperately want financial stability &ndash...

In an increasingly competitive mobile-first world, it’s time for banks to be ethical with the data customers entrust to them – obeying relevant rules and regulations, as well as leading the way in delivering best practices in customer service and convenience. Otherwise, customers will vo...

Imagine a typical morning when you’re getting the kids dressed, putting breakfast on the table, and trying to get out the door on time. Wouldn’t it be nice to be reminded that you have a bill due that day or to transfer funds to cover an upcoming payment? Wouldn’t it be even nicer ...

A common thread among all emergent technologies is that there numerous misconceptions, general confusion, and many times, outright dismissiveness of the particular technology. While that is to be expected for most young technological innovations, it is striking in its gravity among Bitcoin’s c...

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has doubled in value this year, moving from $4000 to above $8000. Meanwhile, the clock is currently ticking for approval on a new potential ETF, an offering by VanEck. To date, no Bitcoin ETFs have begun trading, as last week the SEC delayed a decision on another Bitcoin ETF o...

Billionaire Warren Buffett is a master when it comes to investing. The Berkshire Hathaway CEO is famous for buying and holding stock — and not giving in to the volatility of the market. He’s also well-known for taking big stakes in companies, such as the $900 million worth of shares he h...

Only a few weeks ago, I wrote that this could be the most dangerous time ever to invest in healthcare stocks. I wasn't exaggerating. There has never been as much serious discussion about implementing a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. With around half of the 2.8 million Democratic pres...

Payment trends come and go. A select few can endure the test of time, but far more end up flashes in the payments pan. Being able to figure out which is which is an essential part of running a modern business, but sorting the wheat from the chaff is harder than it sounds. Luckily, there are a few ke...

You don't need deep pockets to be generous. As an associate real estate broker with Warburg Realty in New York City, Maria Daou now sends 1% of all her commissions to her favorite charity, Wellness in the Schools, which works to end childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating habits in public ...

Where can you find value in a bull market? The S&P 500 index hit a new all-time high in April, but not all sectors of the market have been along for the ride. Bank of America analyst Jill Carey Hall says improving macroeconomic data and profit outlooks in the U.S. over the next three quarters co...

This will be the last time I speak to you from the CFTC. Nevertheless, before I go, I wanted to share some thoughts, which I have been saving. My five years at the Commission have been an immense privilege. In the time that I have served, I have learned a lot about the issues facing America’s ...

In my recent blog about IBM’s Blockchain World Wire I mentioned the use of Stable Coins as settlement instrument for global payment transactions. Not many are familiar with the term Stable Coins, because it is a relatively new type of cryptocurrency.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reformed the e-payment space and advised commercial banks to embrace the initiative. Besides, banking is gradually moving away from banking halls, with banks reducing face-to-face transactions and cost of operation, while achieving seamless transactions. These e...

The escalating US-China trade war have sent stocks in a tailspin over the past week. But stocks can't fall forever. The US economy is too good, and corporate earnings are too strong. Stocks had a solid day on Tuesday, shaving their losses from a day earlier. The Dow (INDU)logged its best one-day...

Rapid technological developments are making investing more accessible thereby changing the way in which people are investing their capital. As a result, traditional savings and investment models are being disrupted, and access to investment advice and opportunities are opening up, putting power back...

For payments banks, 2018-19 turned out to be an important milestone. It was when they joined the ranks of the top 10 mobile-banking players, matching them in volumes. As Paytm Payments Bank cemented its position as the market leader in this segment of digital transactions, Airtel Payments Bank climb...

Risk and trust are wholly intertwined, as a loss of trust is one of the biggest risks that an organisation can face.Trust lies at the heart of every relationship we value and is an extremely valuable commodity that takes years to build, but can be lost in a matter of seconds – especially in th...

There’s a reason why we have to go to a polling place to fill out ballots for our elections. Anonymous ballots are the easiest way to protect the integrity of the vote while also protecting voter privacy at the same time. Digital voting has been a difficult challenge because it’s tough t...

Developers have long wanted Ethereum to serve as a decentralized world computer. To achieve this goal the network must maintain its current decentralized architecture while scaling by multiple orders of magnitude. The blockchain can currently handle just 15 transactions per second (tps). In order to...

Bradley Tusk envisions a future where politicians lead for the majority of people, rather than just those who make it to polling places. Tusk, who advised several high-growth startups such as Uber, Lemonade, and Eaze on politics and regulation is a major proponent of mobile voting for local and nati...

Royalty for income investing. Some income investors place a priority on yield above all else. This can backfire, however, since a big payday in the past is no guarantee of future payouts. A better strategy is to look at long-term consistency and dividend growth – even if that means today&rsquo...

What started with a single tweet quickly turned into an escalating debate Wednesday when the CEO of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges appeared to entertain the idea of encouraging revisions to the bitcoin blockchain. Following Wednesday’s revelation that crypto exchange...

Gene-modified cell therapies (GMCTs) offer the potential to alleviate symptoms of – or potentially cure – an array of diseases. Unlike traditional therapeutics, GMCTs are created from patient donor cells which have been modified to introduce novel genetic material. This material adds to ...

Data from traditionally more conservative price tracker Bitstamp showed BTC/USD trading just under $5900 at press time. The pair reached its highest value since November 2018 earlier on Tuesday, coming within just $70 of $6000 across major exchanges. The $6K level was critical last year in maintaini...

Maha has been instrumental in motivating the ISAAA network of Biotechnology Information Centers through her innovations in communicating the science of biotechnology. The Petri Dish, the only science newspaper in Malaysia, is her brainchild which aims to bring scientific news from academic journals ...

It is no secret for those of us involved in UK open banking from its start that top UK Banks have and continue to drag their feet to truly meet open banking/API performance expectations as confirmed by the Finextra news report from APImetrics. While this report is sadly not completely news, it confi...

While there is so much public attention and expectation attached to cryptocurrency, it is just a small part in the financial world. With improved regulation and better technology in place, this might expand into a major part of the economy. Investors are to be protected from scammers and compa...

It’s no secret. The world is warming as a result of climate change, with carbon pollution being the main culprit. Efforts are under way to reduce mankind’s contribution to the carbon problem, but, to use a football analogy, we’re not even close to midfield when it comes to changing...

Decentralized finance is becoming one of the crypto buzzwords of 2019. Beyond the hype, the DeFi movement offers up some intriguing potential. It aims to create a truly decentralized financial system, one which doesn’t need the traditional banking system. A system more closely aligned to the o...

Industry-specific cryptocurrency is a relatively new trend in the crypto world, but it’s gaining popularity fast, and it looks like it might be a viable answer to a large number of problem currently faced by people operating in this field. Stablecoins have cropped up as a solution to the volat...

A few months ago, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced its plans to get into the Bitcoin and digital asset rumble. ICE, which also owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and a cryptocurrency subsidiary called Bakkt, pushed that narrative forward with its acquisition of a cryptocurrency custodi...

Venture capital is funding you acquire by selling some of your equity in your company. This option is attractive to businesses because it comes with benefits which can altogether be parlayed into massive growth very quickly. Whichever your growth objectives, be they faster or slower, any of your fun...

Altcoins led the rally this week from the lows with bitcoin (BTC) lagging behind. After a sharp up move, it was natural for traders to book profits on their quick gains. While altcoins have pulled back sharply from their recent highs, bitcoin has held up quite well. Its dominance has gradually inche...

INVESTING IN stocks can be a daunting proposition and getting started is often the biggest challenge for aspiring investors. Investors who develop a systematic plan have a higher likelihood of success.
Here are six tips for a novice stock investor: Review your financial plan. Set aside enough...

American footwear giant Nike filed a trademark application that suggests the company could have major cryptocurrency plans coming down the pike. That application, filed last week, would award Nike both a trademark and a service mark over the term “Cryptokicks” if accepted by the U.S. Pat...

Outside of the main financial services realm, a multi-billion-dollar global virtual currencies market has rapidly evolved and continues to gather pace. But, whilst virtual currencies have been ‘on the list’ of banks for some years, to date most have taken a hands-off approach. This is no...

Innovation has not occurred at a rapid pace in banking as it has in other industry sectors. Over a year down the line from the introduction of open banking it’s only fairly recently that we have started to see the first signs of the innovation it promised in helping to improve services for cus...

Who's next in oil mergers and acquisitions? Chevron Corp. (ticker: CVX) shocked Wall Street in April by announcing a $33 billion buyout of oil and gas production company Anadarko Petroleum (APC). Less than two weeks later, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) announced a competing $57 billion buyout...

Reasons to sell your stocks or investments. People often have reasons why they buy an investment, but many don’t have specific reasons when to sell a stock, mutual fund or exchange-traded fund. To make money or to take tax write-offs from losses, people need to sell their investments. But some...

I read the most irresponsible article the other day in what would be considered a creditable publication. Before I get started, I want to point out that this article is not meant to be political in any way. In 2000 the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) was established. Here’s how it worked: A Comm...

Microsoft, which has been approaching a $1 trillion market capitalization for about a year, crossed the big business milestone in after-hours trading on Wednesday after outperforming Wall Street expectations with its third quarter earnings. Microsoft was in a tight race among big tech companies last...

Blockchain has been adopted in various ways around the globe. For example, Latin America has positioned itself as a territory with extensive interest in blockchain technology. In this region, various sectors see blockchain as having the potential to propel economic growth, transparency and financial...

Whether you give a hoot about the environment or not, it could pay to think about energy efficiency when shopping for a home. Newer houses certified by Energy Star — the federal government’s energy-efficiency rating program — use an average of 20% less energy than homes built to th...

In recent years, modern technology has come a long way. This is something that has had a positive impact on our lives in many ways, including both our personal and business lives. In terms of the latter, there are many benefits that come with using modern technology, and this includes the use of pla...

Binance Labs has gotten a major endorsement from the Argentinian government when the Ministry of Production and Labor decided to co-invest in 40 of its blockchain-related projects. The government has agreed to match up to $50,000 for each project financed by Binance Labs for a maximum of 10 projects...

The penetration of the internet of things and devices such as smartphones has brought in many advancements. This has made economic activities available at the touch of a button. Among the various sectors, the digital world has evolved the way traditional banking processes are being carried out. A gr...

Advances in technology and a push towards “consumerization” in business-to-business (B2B) payments is resulting in providers offering more digital tools than ever before. A vast number of new partnerships and proprietary product launches have been observed in the commercial payments mark...

Since the start of 2019, Binance Coin (BNB) has led the cryptocurrency pack, growing over 200 percent in three short months. It has demolished the performance of Bitcoin (38.9%), Ethereum (30.7%), Litecoin(187.8%),and almost every other cryptocurrency so far this year. The native coin of the world&r...

Bookkeeping is the cornerstone of any business. You need an organized record of all the transactions that occur within an organization before you can understand the cash flow within your business. It’s why everyone from solo practitioners to nonprofits, to multinational conglomerates, entrust ...

Mining is a popular way to earn BTC, but is investing in mining equipment worth it? To answer this question, it’s good to look at both long-term and short-term costs and opportunities. This article covers general factors to consider at any point in time and a specific example based on the valu...

This ain’t your granddaddy’s privacy battle. Times were simpler when postcards were the big privacy invasion scare. Today, our personal privacy is under siege by veiled government surveillance programs and the countless tech company Trojan Horses. Privacy, per Merriam-Webster, is defined...

This post is part of a five-part series providing an overview of Power2Peer’s clean energy marketplace, a blockchain-secured trading platform where producers and consumers can exchange clean energy kilowatts for fair market value. Learn more about Power2Peer’s mobile app, P2PConnect, and...

Automated accounts payable solutions streamline processes, remove human error, cut down on costs, speed up invoice processing, and more. In part two of our series on automated payments, we break down even more reasons why your business should move away from cheques and manual payment processing.

Squash players know that when up against a strong competitor, a great serve is their greatest strategic advantage. The serve is the player’s moment to evaluate the competitor and engage mind, muscle and materials to set the tone for the rally, making incremental progress toward winning the nex...

A little over ten years ago, if anyone mentioned that large sums of money could be made off the internet using bitcoins and selling of stocks, people would have disbelieved. Now the impossible has happened! Welcome to the Blockchain money world. The Blockchain alternative In the past, money transact...

Mobile phones have proven to be a phenomenal development that has changed how people operate in their daily lives. Mobile phones, and especially smartphones, have evolved from being just a simple communication gadget to a rather critical tool with diverse functionality as opposed to its initial inte...

Bitcoin is a terrible money for criminals. The asset’s loose pseudonymity makes it relatively easy to identify someone’s address and transactions. But it’s not just criminals that should want privacy. Privacy is important beyond its direct implications. Fungibility is one of the ke...

One of the primary reasons for creating Bitcoin is to reach people in the unbanked and under-banked areas. However, one cryptocurrency that is achieving that goal is XRP, with its cross-border remittance practically available in all parts of the world. XRP Helping Drive Crypto Adoption Ripple and it...

At the risk of sounding like Bob Dylan, the times are a changing, and we must try to keep up. The age of passive investment, investment managers and large scale investment funds making decisions for the people is slowly coming to an end. With the international reach of private brokers, such as Hargr...

Mike Kerrigan, partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, and manager, Magis Analytics LLC, is coauthor of this article. In an earlier post, I mentioned three rules for driving change in the loan market: Then, I explained how those rules can be applied to “demystify” the LSTA Purchase and Sale A...

Coinbase, a leading crypto-currency exchange platform, has made the announcement that it will be expanding its crypto to crypto trading services to 11 more countries through a statement from its official blog. This news is likely to excite a lot of would be customers who have been desirous of Coinba...

Earlier this week, The New York Times Magazine rolled out another edition of the tired old trope of how former acting Director Mick Mulvaney “destroyed” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This accusation is by no means new, and I have challenged it in the past. Reading the a...

Starting today, Coinbase supports Augur (REP) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store REP. REP will be available for customers in most jurisdictions, but will not initially be available for residents of the stat...

It seems like there are a million financial companies competing for your attention. Put your money here. Invest with us. This is the best credit card. You’ll get cash back. Hey, we’ll give you a loan! We’ll give you the sweetest deal, we promise. We are totally not a scam. Here at ...

Take a moment. Think about being your best self — living your best life. What do you really want to do with your life? Raise a happy family? Travel the world? Buy a nice house? Start your own business? Reality check: To accomplish any of those things, you’re going to need to save money. ...

Everyone has New Year’s resolution for a healthier and happier life. Some of them are achievable some are not. But one important goal that everyone should set to achieve is financial goal, which can be achieved by proper financial planning and systematic investment. If you haven’t starte...

Cryptocurrency mining turned ten this year. A decade ago it was a niche hobby for a handful of enthusiasts overclocking homebrewed-rigs in pursuit of a better world. Today it’s a global industry, complete with specialized equipment and dozens of stakeholders, from semiconductor manufacturers a...

Blockchain has been a hot buzzword for a few years. That's been driven by the wildly fluctuating cryptocurrency market, due largely to Bitcoin's meteoric rise and fall. So with all the attention on blockchain, there are lots of terms thrown around to explain how it works...that don't rea...

The seesaw in the cryptocurrency market continued over the past 24 hours, as 9 of the top 10 cryptos registered gains, following losses in the previous session. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up around 3%, once-again climbing above the $5,200 mark. The recent gains covered the losses Bitcoin su...

The first blockchain applications are an attempt to make crypto exchanges decentralized. We’ve spoken a lot about decentralized applications already, these new type of networks, in my opinion, have the potential to disrupt even the largest centralized tech companies including the FAANGS. Decen...

Have you ever wished you could invest in the companies you use every day that make so many parts of your life easier? How much have you contributed to the bottom lines of Just Eat, easyJet and Ocado over the last few years? Well, now could be your chance to benefit from your and other people’s...

Britain is no nearer to resolving the uncertainty around its exit from the EU after parliament again failed to find an alternative to Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal. Deal or no deal, no one really knows what will happen to financial markets in the days after the UK leaves the EU – but...

What does it mean to extend the bank? Traditionally, banks have manufactured, distributed and managed all of their own products and services. The concept of extend describes how this traditional model is changing as the value chain becomes unbundled, the bank ecosystem expands, and other parties bec...

The payment services world is more competitive than ever. With numerous providers competing to serve thousands of businesses, things can get more than a little hectic as payments companies try to carve out some space for themselves in a crowded market. A lot of the time, this translates to providers...

In the business world, every little advantage helps. One surefire way to improve efficiencies within your business is by switching to automated payments. What is payment automation? Payment automation is an integrated solution that allows businesses to make computerized bill payments directly throug...

It may be hard to know the difference between Socialism and Communism for some. I think the same dilemma exists between Open Banking and Platform Banking definitions – as both sound very similar but actually two very different things. For this reason, I decided to write this article to clarify...

April seems to have been a big month so far for Digital Asset. Only a week after their announcement regarding their open sourcing of the platform, they have now published a press release stating that they will be also be integrating DAML with VMWare’s Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform, and...

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be one of the most popular technologies among business executives in decades. Increased pressures on financial services organizations is driven in part by investors’ enthusiasm for digital capabilities. This has fueled the need for well-planned t...

London was home to many European fintech companies - currently almost 50% of all payment institutions of the European Economic Area (EEA) are clustered in the UK. However, Brexit means that they will face the risk of losing authorization to provide financial services within the European Union (EU), ...

In parts 1 and 2 of this educational series, we discussed both the foundation of the clean energy marketplace—solar panels—and the integration of those panels into a network where individuals can transmit disparate types of clean energy to their neighbors: the microgrid. But where the le...

A few days ago, the Trump administration issued a memorandum strongly discouraging what the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has called “regulatory dark matter.” The memo instructs federal agencies to submit all policymaking rules to Congress to be vetted under the Co...

Most people have heard of blockchain technology, but relatively few know exactly what it is, or why it’s so exciting. While it’s often recognized as the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, that’s only half the story. Blockchain technology has a hug...

As with most policies of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the effects of filing taxes late as a small business owner aren’t intuitive. However, because the penalties can be very steep, it’s definitely worth your while to understand the implications of filing taxes late.

Last year October I wrote a blog about IBM’s World Wire project. In that month they announced to come to the market with a global blockchain network for cross-border payments and foreign exchange for regulated financial firms using digital assets. But at that time it was not yet ready for prod...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in collaboration with World Bank have launched a private Blockchain based coin called Learning Coin. The coin will be only accessible within IMF and World Bank. The coin does not have monetary value, so it may not be considered a real Cryptocurrency. As per the ...

Whether you have been in business for decades, or you are just getting started, money management can be an issue no matter which bookkeeping services or controller services you use. The good news is that one financial misstep is not the end of the world. In fact, you could be able to use those mista...

When it comes to beginning your business, the first obstacle to succeeding is usually your startup capital. In spite of the joy that follows a bright business idea, the chances of success can be slim where there is no capital available to its founder. Experts have agreed that many businesses usually...

One Bitcoin Could Exceed $1 Million in 7 -10 Years: PayPal Director Xapo CEO Wences Casares has a bullish prediction for bitcoin. | Source: Flickr/ TechCrunch In an essay published on Kana and Katana last month, a research platform run by Ikigai Asset Management, Xapo CEO Wences Casares said that bi...

Throughout early April, the Dow Jones had struggled to show momentum above the mid-25,000-point level, possibly due to the lack of clear stimuli for short-term growth and the uncertainty surrounding the trade talks between the U.S. and China. As said by Thomas Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Glob...

Throughout the world, the nature of work is continuously evolving. Like many people in the past feared that machines are coming to take our jobs, many people in today’s world have this fear. A few months ago, I was having an “e-chat” with one of my friends.

Banks have traditionally managed trade finance as a paper-intensive practice. While internet-based technologies have made giant steps into banks' departments, trade finance has long remained anchored at "business as usual." Something, however, is changing here, as corporate clients are...

The auto sales have been witnessing a prolonged slowdown owing to weak consumer demand. As per data from the Society of Automobile Manufacturers Association (SIAM), the total sales in domestic cars declined by 6.87% in March. However, there is an uptick in the used car market. “The new car mar...

Since the first mobile phone was developed over 40 years ago, the technology has significantly grown to become a platform where other technologies can establish themselves. There are more than 4 billion mobile phone users in 2019 who are now able to enjoy nearly every service imaginable, from ...

The Internet of Things is coming. Unfortunately, connected devices have a variety of vulnerabilities and almost any smart device is a vulnerable device. Security issues include technical problems (outdated software, insecure data transmissions, etc.) and people problems (simple and default passwords...

Philippines’ Union Bank has become the first bank to partner with the central bank of a country to launch a two-way cryptocurrency ATM machine. Users of this ATM will be able to sell and purchase digital assets by converting local fiat currency, the Peso, to bitcoins. The first bitcoin ATM mac...

Attorney General Venugopal made some ludicrous arguments in defence of the electoral bonds whose validity is under challenge in the Supreme Court. Why on earth, he wondered, would voters care who funds political parties? After all, they should judge the parties and candidates as they are. This is li...

Spring in Washington, D.C. means cherry blossoms, warmer weather, and of course the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund. And with them, the buzz and crowds nearly rival those at ground zero for spring in D.C. at the National Mall’s reflecting pools.

In a market economy that is based on private property and the rule of law, the efficient and effective enforcement of contracts is indispensable. Without the ability to enforce the promises made between individuals and businesses, any form of transaction, especially credit products, would be harder ...

Customer communications (for better or for worse) have an impactful role in the Customer Experience (CX), and they affect customer loyalty. It's time for banks to seize this as an area of opportunity, and strategically re-engineer their processes for creating, managing, and enhancing interaction...

A recently released U.S. consumer survey from Computer Services Inc., a financial technology solutions and regulatory compliance company, reported that 86% of bank account holders expect a seamless experience across channels and devices when conducting banking activities.

Gratuity is a lump sum amount an employee gets when she retires, resigns, dies or becomes disabled due to an accident or disease, provided she had worked for at least five continuous years for the same employer. In other words.

If you’re looking for a well-rounded cash back credit card, the Bank of America Cash Rewards credit card is worth considering, especially now that it just increased its cash rewards bonus to $200! Cardholders can earn this $200 bonus by spending $1,000 on purchases within 90 days of opening th...

Evaluating customer journeys and business models are more relevant than ever. The service model is changing accordingly to sales and service processes which are enabled in digital channels. Regardless many improvements in the area of customer journeys, instant human assistance plays a key role in en...

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as Pewdiepie, as about 94 million subscribers on YouTube and has just announced an exclusive deal with blockchain streaming platform D-live. Personally, I’ve never heard of dlive.tv before, but taking a look after this publicity stunt, it seems pretty co...

When you’re considering scaling your business, much of the information you’ll see is about strategy. However, successful growth is more about managing your numbers effectively and planning for a sustainable scale. Fortunately, this can be achieved by monitoring the right metrics and usin...

For the last few decades, auto finance has been something of a golden goose for the banking industry: reliable and lucrative. Even the great recession of 2008 wasn’t enough to stifle its growth. In the digital economy, a track record of success quickly becomes an attractive target. Fintechs an...

Recent accounting webinars highlight the growing trend of M&A in cryptocurrency and blockchain, yet few seem to be questioning the sensibility and sustainability beyond the pitch. Advertisement Projects are burning through initial capital and those seeking a functioning product are likely to sta...

There are over 4,450 cryptocurrency ATMs installed globally, which represents a 62% growth over a period of one year. A recent Crypto ATM Market report projects that in the next five years, an exponential annual growth rate of at least 46% will be experienced in the industry. Further, the report pro...

Gold supporters often reject bitcoin citing that the cryptocurrency is too volatile and not trustworthy enough to ever become a store of value. Bitcoin supporters, on the other hand, make the point that bitcoin is fundamentally no different from gold, and that it improves on aspects like seizure pro...

According to Tron CEO Justin Sun, this may be the company’s latest plan. In a recent interview, Sun discussed the prospects of USDT-Tron – stable coin Tether’s integration into the Tron network – which was launched yesterday on April 9. The entrepreneur and business executive...

The essential element of the advanced tokens that are branded as an advantage is the absence of regulations. Moreover, the expanding number of criminal cases and scams has left the digital money, and the legal business spaces interweaved broadly. Blockchain innovation has allowed financial specialis...

It is more exciting to see cryptographic money acceptance keep on spreading in the automotive business. There have been reports in the past about vehicle businesses accepting bitcoin as a type of currency. It began with a couple of vehicle vendors started following the pattern, and now it is spreadi...

What kind of financial windfall would it take to put you into the 1% — to enable you to leave your job, climb aboard your yacht, and eat avocado toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? The answer to that question varies depending on your location: from $81K per year in India, to $290K in the U...

Cross-border interoperability of domestic real-time payments systems was a hot topic a few years ago, but seems to have gone off the boil – possibly due to the reality of bedding in new real-time payments systems and the challenges of domestic adoption – from the USA, to Europe, to Asia ...

Losses totalling £354m arising from Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams were recorded in 2018. This staggering number of losses represents a total of 83,864 victims, the majority of which were on personal accounts. To help reduce cases of APP scams and to minimise the impact the crime can have...

In recent days Bitcoin has skyrocketed like never before; something people haven’t seen in several months. There were also some Cryptocurrencies of smaller companies that reached higher numbers as well. This was all set off by a buyer who is at this moment unknown.

The introduction of blockchain and smart contract technology has rapidly changed with the way people and various organizations do business across the globe. No doubt, this technology is more than just a game changer but a dynamic revolutionary. One of the most significant achievements of this moveme...

Standard Chartered has earlier today announced that it is bolstering its open banking capabilities, with a focus on driving innovation and technology culture through openness and partnerships with developers, corporations and fintechs to co-create better client products and services through the shar...

Only about 10 per cent of banks and finance institutions view climate change as an issue that can have either a positive or negative impact on their balance sheets. In January 2019, the Bank of England, with the assistance of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential ...

If you use your Net banking facility to transfer funds, you would be familiar with the options of NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement). But do you know about the associated charges and other details about these money transfer facilities or the difference be...

Have you recently received a call from a bank representative offering you a pre-approved personal loan or credit card? Chances are you have, and not one, but many such calls. While a lot of you may have refused to buy into the offer or blocked the numbers from which such calls come, such calls are o...

As the first business quarter of a new year draws to a close, it’s a good time to revisit the strategies you have put in place for 2019, to help ensure that your payments ecosystem is ready. For me there are four core issues you need to focus on. Who are my APIs for? As you create APIs, which ...

Trading of EOS and REP is available in all jurisdictions supported by Coinbase Pro, with the exception of New York State. MKR is available in all Coinbase Pro-supported jurisdictions outside the US. Additional regions may be added for each asset at a later date. After 12pm PT on Monday April 8, we w...

These phone calls are common because credit card fraud is a serious and growing problem. New technology like the EMV chip better protects consumers against physical credit card fraud and theft. Unfortunately, there are few protections for credit card holders from a more common crime: identity theft....

Receiving financing from a working capital lender can be an advantageous way to improve your business’s operations. From expanding your business to purchasing inventory to hiring more employees, there are so many ways that you can utilize financing. But before you start thinking about ways to ...

Keeping track of your budget is easier than ever in 2019, thanks to the various tools that have arrived on the market to fill this niche. However, the huge availability of products can be a bit overwhelming at times. If you want to keep your budget in check but are not sure where to start, here are ...

Building a portfolio is a complex exercise, and its maintenance has to be regular. A person’s portfolio holds different types of assets based on her financial goals, and each asset class gives different types of returns, which is why a portfolio much have an ideal mix of financial products. To...

While bank CFOs have long been responsible for producing the numbers and managing costs, the CFO’s emphasis today is shifting to data, analysis and insight., Bank CFOs no longer operate within strictly defined borders. They look for new ways to generate value, proposing and shaping busin...

Aconsultation paper put out by capital markets regulator Sebi on amending its regulations for Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) has come not a day too soon. The Sebi rules were framed back in 2004, but due to legal hurdles, no SROs have actually been set up in the fast-growing financial services ...

Evidently, there are more and more innovative FinTech startups as well as banks and insurance companies changing the industry landscape by providing new and easy to use applications and solutions. However, there is one problem that is preventing this revolution moving to the next level and that is t...

As online and mobile banking has become the primary banking interaction channels for many consumers, banks must increasingly invest their efforts and resources into keeping up with the latest trends in digital technologies, as well as changing consumer behavior, if they want to remain relevant and c...

Every quarter or so, crypto followers enthusiastically plaster the Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings across Twitter, Reddit threads and Facebook blockchain groups. Often they use it to justify their specific view on why x coin sucks or why y token is better than the rest. However, for the reasons we outl...

Central banks around the world are experimenting with so-called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). But what is it and why does it matter? CBDC is a digitized version of domestic currency where the central bank issues new money equivalent to – and redeemable for – its domestic cu...

In the last few years, marketing has undergone metamorphosis. Marketing was conventionally considered an art but with proliferation of data and arrival of digital technologies, it has become a science driven by precision. The marketers especially need to make use of artificial intelligence (AI) in t...

iGaming is also referred to as online gaming. It encompasses sports betting, online casinos, poker, among other gaming activities conducted over the internet. The iGaming industry has seen tremendous growth over the last five years. Growth Projections More people are pouring noticeable amounts of mo...

Binance one of the well-known Cryptocurrency exchange is planning to start a new fiat-to-crypto exchange in Singapore in the forthcoming month. At the economy event in Seoul, South Korea CZ” Zhao, in an A tweet on the exchange’s account that said: In September at Consensus event in Singa...

Conventional loyalty doesn’t work. A slew of research points to the same picture, time and again: while customers like the idea of collecting loyalty points with their purchases, the reality rarely offers significant value to either them or the businesses that issue these points. The average A...

In the past Hedge Funds were mysterious, exotic things, whispered about in wood-paneled rooms. There was something stately about them, almost noble, their workings only understood by a select few. They numbered in the dozens. If you weren’t close enough to the situation to know about them, you...

Ripple Inc is one of the most capitalized crypto entities, with Ripple (XRP) currently the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap with $14,134 million at the time of press. The adoption and investment by financial institutions have helped out Ripple Inc in recent times. Ripple Inc Has O...

Which cryptocurrency projects are planning big releases, upgrades, updates or even launches of their mainnet in April? Which coins are worth keeping an eye on? These are the three coins to watch for in April 2019.Currently, the market is citing monolithic gains, the kind not seen in over a year. The...

Obsidian Bot is offering a platform to create or purchase cryptocurrency trading bots with a beginner-friendly user interface. Obsidian Bot’s bots run on the cloud 24/7 and execute trades based on criteria entered by users. The site offers a bot marketplace, where users can put up their own bo...

The story of cryptocurrency’s potential is the same as the evolution of money itself. Money has taken many forms through human history, but at the core of its utility is its ability to store and communicate human production. In short, human production is a combination of our time and energy (c...

Leave it to the SEC to judge a case about a private jet token, just when the crypto markets are flying.
For the first time ever, US regulators have found that a utility token is not considered a security. For those of you who are new, sorry we’re not getting into all the details of what...

An installment loan exists any time you borrow money from a lender in exchange for agreeing to make principal and interest payments over an agreed-upon period. This loan type contrasts with a revolving line of credit, which can be drawn down, up to a limit, or paid back at any time within the term.

In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s more challenging than ever to distinguish your accounting firm from the pack. This is further complicated by the fact that you’re selling services and expertise, which are more difficult to define than tangible products. Luckily, there&rsquo...

Bitcoin has been dragging the whole cryptocurrency market up in the last 24 hours, but some altcoins are performing even better. These are 8 altcoins from the top 100 that are outperforming BTC during this pump. The prediction market platform Augur started its run relatively late. Almost 20 hours af...

When the web was developed over 25 years ago, the technologies in place significantly lowered the cost of building a global company. Thanks to the internet, it has become possible to reach a large part of the global population simply from behind your computer. Those companies who first understood th...

Is blockchain a be-all, end-all solution? Like any emerging technology, blockchain has limitations, making it less appropriate for some applications, or meaning more investment is required for certain use cases. Some of the major challenges, with recommendations for improvement, are: Performance iss...

When saving for retirement, there are many different strategies and savings vehicles available. The sheer number of options can make it challenging to determine which strategy or vehicle you should use for your specific situation. Let’s start by looking at the two most popular retirement savin...

Across the globe, banks are facing major issue with digital banking, cyber security, regulatory audit and compliance issues. Further, any lapses found during internal / external or regulatory audit of the bank would lead to regulatory fines levied based on the issues ascertained. The reputatio...

Given blockchain’s impressive new prominence in the marketplace, it’s of little surprise that so many people are finally discussing the myriad of ways in which it can positively disrupt the market. Most conversations surrounding blockchain technology have often centered around its securi...

Optimism about a trade deal between the U.S. and China has ebbed and flowed in recent months. Today, it seems to be swelling, and in this case a rising tide lifts all freighters. With talks between the world’s two largest economies continuing in Washington this week, hopes seemed high after a ...

Continuing my blog series looking at Accenture’s 2019 banking trends, this time I’m exploring how improved adoption of cloud and data analytics will enable banks to raise the bar in the way they deliver retail financial advice. We’ve seen some exciting advancements in banking over ...

Like most aspects of the tech industry, cryptocurrencies have evolved quite a bit since the hype started a few years back. Currently, investment in cryptocurrencies is no longer only for the techies. The rising number of platforms trading cryptocurrencies has made it possible for anyone who has a fe...

IT spending is at an all time high; continuing to grow at a rapid rate, it’s estimated that $103 billion will be dished out in 2019. This may seem like a good thing, more spend on security automatically means better security, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as while spend go...

End-to-end processes, platforms and AI – these are the topics that the Euroforum event 'Rethinking Corporate Banking', which takes place on April 4th and 5th in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, focuses on. Insiders of banks and FinTechs will share their knowledge and discuss the most import...

2019 could be a big year for Ethereum. The Constantinople hard fork eventually went through with barely a hitch. The first projects using Joseph Poon’s Plasma scaling technology will go live in a matter of months. There are still more developers and dapps on Ethereum than on any other blockcha...

Do you have strong sales but still find yourself in a cash crunch? The solution could be shortening the amount of time it takes to collect your accounts receivable. Here's what you should do. 1. Speed Up Your Invoicing Do you batch up invoices and send them all at the end of the week or month? T...

The Internet revolution has helped create an environment in which nearly anyone can trade and invest in the stock market. Becoming a day trader in today’s world is simpler than ever: all you need is an Internet connection and you can easily access a variety of instruments. Using Contract for D...

The crypto industry has revolutionized the traditional financial space with its fast-paced almost instant funds transfer system which is based on the digital ledger technology. It has made the cross-border money transfer, way more efficient, accessible, cheaper and quicker. Despite the stronghold of...

Citing a recent study from UBS on US banks' tech spending, Business Insider reported that:
JPMorgan, the highest spender, has a $11.4 billion technology budget this year, a 5.6% uptick from last year's $10.8 billion. Bank of America's IT spend was second, at $10 billion, followed ...

This is a reprint from BAI Banking Strategies and our SVP of Digital Solutions and Strategy Michael J Alfonsi at Exela Technologies. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that banks and fintech startups mix about as well as oil and water. And on one hand, there’s some truth in that. Ever s...

15 months after open banking launched in the UK, consumer understanding of what it means remains low. In January this year, research revealed that just 9% of British adults had used open banking services, and less than a quarter (22%) had even heard of it. In fact, this is only part of the picture. ...

Solid track record with excellent balance sheet and pays a dividend FNF delivered a bottom-line expansion of 24% in the prior year, with its most recent earnings level surpassing its average level over the last five years. In addition to beating its historical values, FNF also outperformed its indus...

The year 2019 seems to have started off with a renewed interest in the cryptocurrency industry among banks. Just weeks after Falcon Private Bank in Switzerland introduced a digital wallet and direct cryptocurrency transfers, another Swiss private Bank, Julius Baer, which is among the largest private...

For the modern consumer, shopping is not just about getting hold of the final product, but the entire experience of getting there – from first laying eyes on a fashion blogger’s outfit to searching up the best deals on various websites and finally, sealing the deal with the click of a bu...

2019 marks a special year for digital assets. On January 3, 2019, the world celebrated the 10th anniversary of a novel concept: ‘mining’ currency. In the realms of geeks and technology crypto enthusiasts.people explored large computing farms to mine a set of digital currency. In a comple...

The market for cryptocurrencies has opened the door for a number of new opportunities and challenges. One of the biggest difficulties that crypto traders, brokers and entrepreneurs face is a rising number of security risks. In 2019, crypto scams where the most common type of online security breaches...

As you may be aware, Brexit negotiations are ongoing and, as of the date of this post, the date for the UK to leave the EU has been extended. How does this affect you? Regardless of how Brexit turns out, your current eToro account and how we communicate with you should be unaffected. We explain belo...

Today, we’re announcing Tezos (XTZ) baking for Coinbase Custody clients. We’re proud to be the first full-service, regulated, comprehensively-insured, and 100% offline staking provider in crypto. In the coming weeks, we will add governance support for the Maker (MKR) protocol. We launche...

Customer experience is the next battleground where crypto businesses will win or die.” We’re not sure where that quote is from. I’m convinced it appeared out of the ether and into BitPay's office. Regardless, it’s at the heart of BitPay’s values. It’s why our ...

Amidst the successive wave of IoT and Blockchain and other millions of buzzwords in the techno-space, the rise of Cryptocurrency has proven to be a game-changer for the fin-tech sector. The increasing popularity across the world has made it a global phenomenon today. According to Investopedia, &ldqu...

To maintain customer relevance and sustain growth, FS organisations need to adapt at speed and scale. I work closely with insurance companies every day on their talent and organisation strategies, and the single biggest challenge they face is building a workforce capable of executing digital strateg...

As the digital and physical worlds continue to intertwine, banks will need to find ways to seamlessly connect the two. In 2015, Amazon did a very weird thing: it opened a physical bookstore in Seattle. The move signaled a new commitment to brick-and-mortar retail experiences from the online giant. A...

The rise of on-demand workers, short-term jobs, temporary or seasonal work, and an influx of independent, migrant workers have given rise to the “Gig Economy.” In the Gig Economy, companies bring on independent contractors and freelance workers instead of full-time employees. The explosi...

Across the globe, banks are adopting to new technology for secured Banking in payments area. As Corporate Banks / Financial Institutions seeks to have safe and secured network to perform remittance transactions.Blockchain network have the capabilities to meet the technology demands of bank and Finan...

If someone asked you which industry is the most innovative, you probably wouldn’t say the financial industry. In fact, that would probably be the last industry on your list. Nonetheless, the financial industry is using big data more than ever. The success of both Fintech companies and traditio...

In an 1882 letter to his art dealer brother, Vincent van Gogh pointed out that, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” That sentiment of meaningful progress being achieved through the accretion of incremental improvements is a good analo...

Of the two billion adults (not to mention millions of small businesses) who remain unbanked globally, two-thirds of them own a mobile phone, according to the World Bank.1 That’s good news for payments providers with broad goals to advance financial inclusion around the globe. Financial inclusi...

The enterprises in the 21st century have been drawn into the data endearing ecosystem that is currently present today. With the formula of more data, more success gaining popularity amongst several decision makers, it is highly evident that enterprises are focussed on quality customer intelligence, ...

The financial services industry has seen remarkable changes since the turn of the century. In common with most industries it has been transformed by the internet and digital technologies, which in this context means finance technology, also known as fintech. As a result, banks and other traditional ...

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency miner manufacturer Bitmain confirmed in a new blog post changes to its leadership structure and the expiration of its initial public offering (IPO) application with Hong Kong’s stock exchange. The shifting comes as Bitmain is angling to tackle 2019 in more resolute f...

North American insurers: it’s time to enter your visionary new capabilities for the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards. Last year, we saw the awards expand into a truly global initiative. While the main ceremony will be held this year in Amsterdam, on June 24, we will once again be ...

In our research on “The New, New Normal: Exponential Growth”, 56 percent of executives agreed that AI deployment will drive new growth and revenue opportunities by accelerating new products and services. Fifty-eight percent said that AI-enabled revenue growth will come from increased cus...

My previous post about transitioning from a “marketing mindset” to an “experience mindset” raised controversial discussions. Some even call it “digital business manifesto.” Anyway, I'm not pretending to teach the right business approach for the digital age. My...

Open Banking is making a significant impact upon the banking industry in Europe. The banking market structure keeps changing and shifts in revenue continue, with new players growing faster than incumbent banks. PSD2 encourages new entrants in Europe. In the UK, for example, 50 new players received l...

If your funds are spread across accounts at different institutions, it helps to have an easy way to make transfers between them. Online transfers are a convenient way to transfer money from one bank to another. Online transfers are generally free at online banks and some traditional banks, but other...

Bank interest rates are hardly considered a big perk — there are many Scrooge-like accounts out there that barely pay enough to offer loose change. But some people are getting $100, $200, even more than $300 from their banks. Their secret? Free money promotions. Banks are paying customers to o...

Bitcoin was the first implementation of a working blockchain technology. The idea has been built on with several other implementations. One of the most exciting is Ethereum. In some instances Ethereum's coin, Ether, is compared with Bitcoin, and you see both cited in cryptocurrency value listing...

Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755) has earlier today announced that the registration process of Rakuten Wallet, formerly known as Everybody’s Bitcoin, as a virtual currency exchange is complete. Rakuten first announced its plans to acquire Everybody’s Bitcoin in August 2018. Commenting on the deal&r...

One of the most interesting relationships over the past year and a half to watch develop globally has been that of Wall Street and the crypto industry. At the peak of the crypto boom, Wall Street was salivating over the idea of investing into cryptos, hoping to make as much profit out of it as possi...

The highly flexible nature of blockchain has started to become really apparent in recent years. The technology has managed to find its way into many areas of life, and various companies in many different industries have been actively experimenting with it for various purposes. And while some of thos...

“At Harvard Business School, I had a great investment management class with a professor who has schooled many of the best in the business,” Meyer wrote at the time on his popular Coyote Blog. “If an investment we were analyzing turned out to be a real dog, he would ask us ‘Wh...

Jeffry Gates’ Gates Capital Management is an event-driven alternative asset manager founded back in 1996, which managed around $2.69 billion on a discretionary basis at the end of 2016. Besides being its founder, Jeffrey Gates is the current President and Portfolio Manager of the fund, whose h...

Back in 2001 Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich founded institutional alternative asset management called Scopia Capital. The fund is based in New York City, and it has around $11.37 billion in asset under management (December 2016). It provides investment management services with a long/short value d...

Merchants are at the center of a massive transformation in payment acceptance. Digital payments experiences are more than novel and convenient, they are driving purchasing decisions. The payment acceptance choices merchants make now—and the ecosystems they do (or don’t) enable—will...

The contact center’s role has changed multiple times since companies first started gathering customer service representatives together to take phone calls. Initially, financial services firms envisioned contact centers as an alternative channel to bank branches or insurance offices, providing ...

Future generations wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting valuable family memories, and you would be able to refer back to important documents for referencing and information. Certainly, with the advent of self-testing DNA kits, there are many ways to learn about your past. But sending a swab...

Banks struggle to balance two imperatives: to open their systems to external partners and clients via application programming interfaces (APIs) and to control the user interaction. In order to maintain the direct and captive relationship with their corporate clients, banks are building their own API...

Dockless scooters. Bike sharing. Self-flying taxis. The way we move is changing—with big implications for insurance. Lines are blurring right now in the world of transportation on a scale note seen since the days of Henry Ford and the Model T. Services like Uber and Lyft offer transport-as-an-...

To succeed in a rapidly evolving environment, insurance organisations must be able to pivot fast. A flexible financial services (FS) business requires an adaptive workforce. The time to shape it is now.
New technology, changing consumer and employee demographics, digital-age business models, ...

How to get your financial life back in order after life transitions. No one knows how disruptive life can be better than women in transition. Whether it’s widowhood or divorce, getting a job or losing one, moving into a house or out of one, women in transition are well acquainted with life&rsq...

Investing a lump sum of money of thousands of dollars into stocks and exchange-traded funds can often generate a higher return compared to holding on to the cash in an attempt to time the market. Stocks and ETFs can be purchased with a large windfall of money acquired through inheritance or the sale...

Global income awaits. While dividend investors are prone to stick to known domestic companies, the reality is many entrenched U.S. stocks are not exactly the safest bet in the world these days. Think of General Electric Co. (ticker: GE), which slashed its dividend three times, or Kraft-Heinz Co. (KH...

The Federal Reserve walks a tightrope as it tries to promote stability and growth in the United States’ financial system while also curbing excessive bank lending risk. But as the 2018 year-end bear market demonstrated, Fed moves can risk plunging markets into chaos. New accounting standards m...

Technology makes life easier. And convenience is everything. That’s why banking online, particularly mobile banking, is so popular. But which banking app is best? The Credit.com editorial team looked at some of the best banking apps out there to help you find the one that’s right for you...

If you’re like most people, housing costs are your biggest expense. CBS News reported that U.S. rental prices hit a record high in 2018 at an average of $1,405 a month. On the flip side, Lending Tree reported that the average monthly mortgage cost was $1,029 in 2016. Rent tends to rise with ea...

Personal loans are usually taken to cover immediate purposes including vacations, weddings, higher education, medical expenditure, home renovation and so on. There are several major public and private sector banks and NBFCs (non banking finance companies) offering personal loans in India. However, c...

Applying for a home loan? Remember that taking a home loan is arguably one of the biggest financial decision in a lifetime. Owning your home will not be that easy since you will have to take responsibility for repaying your monthly EMI in a timely manner without any defaults and also plan your budge...

Cryptocurrencies and their potential impact on central banking have sparked a policy debate on addressing their potential risks to the banking and monetary systems. By highlighting the functional similarities between bitcoin and central bank money (CeBM) and investigating the challenges that the pot...

An American company Avnet which is on the list of the largest technological organizations version of Fortune 500 announced that they are ready to accept digital coins including Bitcoin as payments. This was made possible because of a BitPlay service. It should be noted that Avnet has also begun coll...

Competition in the financial sector is fierce—not only from other banks, but also from the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google. These behemoths of technology—and, more importantly, the customer experience—are all looking to throw their respective hats into the financial ring.

Some offers mentioned below have expired and/or are no longer available on our site. You can view the current offers from our partners in our credit card marketplace. DISCLOSURE: Cards from our partners are mentioned below. Despite the technical rigors of qualifying for a loan today, there is someth...

Personal loans often make our lives easier by helping us out during the cash crunches. But never to ignore the fact that paying off the loan(s) is a liability and failing to fulfill the same can land us in hot water at any given time. Personal loans of all kinds are generally costlier than secured l...

Thinking of applying for a business loan for your enterprise? You have to consider whether it is the right time to avail of a business loan or not. There are several banks and non banking financial corporation’s (NBFCs) which offer business loans to organizations of almost all sizes. You must ...

Gold rose on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off its March FOMC meeting. The US central bank is expected to remain dovish as it keeps its benchmark rate unchanged. The focus will be on the language on the statement and the words from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed quickly put the ...

Here's the thing about bonds: They're not as glamorous as stocks by a long shot. The glorious rise of Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN) and the gory struggles of General Electric Co. (GE) boast a lot more storytelling arc than, say, crunching the micro-digits of a U.S. Treasury bond – which wi...

For many small business owners, choosing a business loan comes down to a single factor: interest. They look at all the options they qualify for and, unless there is a clear reason not to do so, choose the one with the lowest interest rate. Since interest plays such a crucial role in this decision, i...

This year, about 12 million Americans will get sucked into the black hole that is the short-term loan industry. Short-term, small-dollar loans, better known as payday loans, have ballooned into a $90 billion market with no signs of slowing down. With a payday loan, you typically borrow between $300 ...

Stacey Keagan stands in front of the chilled foods section at the Walgreens across the street from her office. Keagan, a liberal arts graduate from Smith College has to make her biggest decision of the day, how to spend the five dollars which she’s budgeted for her lunch. There are days when K...

The American Bankers Association today urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to extend the compliance date for all provisions of its final rule governing short-term, small-dollar loans. The extension would give the CFPB time to revise the rule to exclude traditional consumer loans offered b...

To assess cyber resilience across the industries studied in the Accenture 2018 Cyber Resilience report, Accenture Security evaluated industries according to 33 cybersecurity capabilities across seven domains (details in Figure 1). Looking at both Banking/Capital Markets and Insurance, the news was p...

Do you live in a country that enforces the rule of law, such as the United States, Canada, or a member of the EU? Do you think you can avoid paying taxes on cryptocurrency trading and appreciation? Do you trade on centralized foreign exchanges such as Binance, or decentralized exchanges like Ether D...

HEXO Corp. (NYSEMKT: HEXO) took investors on a roller-coaster ride in 2018. The marijuana stock more than doubled by October, but gave up most of its gains to end the year up by only 5%. HEXO is off to a great start in 2019, though, with shares soaring 78% so far. Despite its nice run in 2019, HEXO&...

The technology sector has long been thought of as the classic cyclical investment, with tech companies typically selling nonessential products and services to businesses and consumers and their stocks often supported by high revenue growth projections that come undone during economic downturns.

Shares of aircraft-manufacturing company Boeing took a hit early this week, losing $26.6 billion in market value Monday and Tuesday, following a deadly crash of one of its 737 Max 8 airplanes in Ethiopia. That model has since been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as by aviati...

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said Washington and Beijing were making further substantive progress on trade talks.The report came as a relief after news that a summit to seal adeal between the two sides will not happen at Marchend. Urn newsml reuters.com nB9N20G02Gurn newsml reuters.com n...

The idea is to remove the use and exchange of physical certificates. The proof of concept (PoC) entailed the constitution and release of collateral pledged by Renta 4 Banco to cover customer’s positions at BME Clearing, BME’s central counterparty. Berta Ares, head of digital transformati...

You will be delighted to hear, this Greek is coping with the cold better than expected (the cinnamon buns can take your mind off most things, trust me) and I now have my routes (you know, airport to the office with my eyes closed and whatnot) and familiarity is setting in. And familiarity is a wonde...

Today we're checking out the best free checking accounts for consumers. Depending on where you bank, what you do, or what you're comfortable with, there is likely a free checking account that will work for you. Too many people fall for the myth that banking is expensive and that the only opt...

Are you tired of waiting in long lines, and dealing with too many feesand minimum requirements? Opening a checking account with an online bank could be your solution. Today, almost every bank offers online banking options, but did you know that there are banks that solely operate online, with no act...

If you're looking to get a better interest rate on your savings, you need to consider opening a money market account. Money market accounts operate extremely similar to savings accounts, and they are available at most banks. However, you're typically going to find the best money market accou...

The famous line "What we've got here is failure to communicate" from Cool Hand Luke (1967) serves as a warning shot in the current blitzkrieg of Digital Transformation for banks. As financial institutions are charging toward ever-increased market share growth and maximized operational ...

There is much bother when you fall in some urgent need of money. Randomly, you approach to your friends or family for some help. But this is not possible always. Maybe you have shifted to a new city and you realize that the house, you are moving in, needs some renovation. Asking them for any financi...

Stock markets closed with marginal gains in a volatile trade Thursday as investors booked profits at higher levels amid mixed global cues. After rising over 150 points in early trade, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended up by 2.72 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 37,754.89, extending gains to the fourth sess...

Data made global headlines in 2018 for all the wrong reasons. Many consumers now have a distorted understanding of data usage and risks. For insurers, banks, and capital markets firms, the solution is radical transparency. The many data scandals of 2018 put cracks in the long-held assumption that co...

Most lenders check your credit history when you apply for a loan. If you have a record of making payments on time and aren’t using most of your available credit, you’re more likely to be approved for mortgages and other types of loans. You’ll also qualify for better interest rates ...

If someone hits the $448 million jackpot in Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing, Uncle Sam will be waiting in the wings with both palms out. While the odds of winning the top prize are stacked against players, the IRS — and often the state where you live — wastes no time getting at...

A former equity derivatives trader at Deutsche Bank who spent more than a decade at the German lender has popped up at Scotiabank. Kaan Onur started earlier this month in New York. Deutsche Bank has reportedly been “juniorizing” its equities staff in the U.S. as part of its new strategic...

Almost a month after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) in February, banks have started revising the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate(MCLR) downwards, though marginally. MCLR is the lowest possible interest rate that a bank can charge for a home l...

Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), has the potential to disrupt a wide range of business models across the financial services industry. However, the potential application of blockchain to the worlds of market data and reference data has not received that much attention. It’s d...

A buffet for bond investors. While many think investing primarily involves the stock market, it's important to remember the bond market is significantly larger. The total value of U.S. stocks is about $20 trillion, while the bond market is more than $40 trillion. Bonds essentially are loans, eit...

Earlier this month, I thought I made a persuasive case for investors to avoid Roku (ROKU) stock before it went on a tear in the wake of better-than-expected earnings and optimism about a partnership with Apple (AAPL). Since my crystal ball appears to have been faulty, I decided to take another look ...

Interest in value investing seems to wax and wane over time. When the market is in a frenzy and high-growth companies are soaring, value investing certainly loses its luster. Coincidentally, it's time like this that investors should be seeking out some of the great companies that are out of favo...

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ ortype LIVE/ in a news window) Boeing down for second session, weighs on airlines U.S. consumer prices post first rise in four months Dow off 0.13 pct, S&P up 0.22 pct, Nasdaq rises 0.09 pct British lawmakers to vote on Bre...

The February jobs report that was released last Friday and today’s CPI release point to the Fed being patient with rates. The FOMC meeting next week (March 19-20) will most likely prove that the Fed’s policy has changed from gradual rate hikes to a rate pause. The February jobs report wa...

Global equities have extended yesterday’s gains, along with U.S futures, as the broad risk-on attitude across markets continues. Treasuries prices are under pressure and the ‘big’ dollar has edged a tad lower, while sterling is climbing ahead of this afternoons crucial Brexit vote....

NOT ONLY CAN YOU BUY shares on Wall Street: You can literally buy shares in Wall Street, as the financial sector boasts some heavy hitters so far as dividend stocks go.Yet putting your money in banks (as in banking and finance stocks) isn't a sure thing by a long shot. Just ask those who wiped o...

Cracking down on the unregulated lending market, the government has banned high-risk deposit schemes offered by builders and jewellers. The companies used the deposits to fund their needs and attracted investors by offering high interest rates. The practice was fairly common in tier II and tier III ...

YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A problem finding a financial advisor. The challenge, like looking for the right toothpaste brand or a shampoo, is deciding what kind of advisor to work with. You have probably stood in the grocery store before wondering: Should I get the one that specializes in fighting enamel e...

Even though bitcoin isn’t as hot as it was a couple of years ago, there are still enthusiasts. Indeed, bitcoin (BTC) is going for close to $4,000. What if you want to invest in cryptocurrency but can’t afford bitcoin? Well, there are alternatives. However, as with any investment, it&rsqu...

Considering how heavily regulated the mortgage industry is, it’s hard to believe that mortgage fraud is actually on the rise. Yet one out of every 109 loan applications made from the second quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2018 contained elements of fraud, according to a report from mo...

How much of a business loan you can get is primarily a function of your business’s annual gross sales, existing debt, and creditworthiness. Most lenders won’t lend more than 10% to 30% of a business’s annual revenue. Your company should be cash flow positive after accounting for al...

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes rose to a seven-month high in December, but November's outsized jump was revised lower, pointing to continued weakness in the housing market.
Other data last week showed acceleration in growth in the vast services sector in February, powered by a surg...

LICHFL (LIC Housing Finance) has officially tied up with IMGC (India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation) for offering easy home loans to customers along with increased loan eligibility. LICHFL will now be able to sanction home loans with extended tenors going up to the age of 75 years with back-up offer...

Phishing scams typically involve emails, texts or calls that come from seemingly trusted sources that attempt to trick victims into clicking a link or handing over personal information. Once a scammer has the information, they can use it to steal the victim’s money, identity or gain access to ...

Why would a company like to source finance from the third party if there is an option of accepting the loan from their directors? There are certainly many doubts which must have been raised in readers mind regarding the legal viability and compliance requirements for such transactions. Before we dis...

There are many types of investors in America. Whether you are in your 20s or retired, it is important to know what strategy is the best fit for your portfolio. Investing strategies start to change for investors when they get up into their 50s and 60s, as the retirement age starts to become a future ...

There's never a bad time to take a hard look at your financial life with an eye on cutting clutter and perhaps reducing duplicative account-maintenance fees. But the tax-return filing season can be an especially good opportunity, as you likely have just gone through your files looking for key do...

Booming profits are driving a fresh rally in technology shares from New York to Hong Kong, helping boost stock markets and showing the allure of rapidly growing companies even as the global growth outlook dims.Companies including Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Rakuten In...

Investors are snapping up shares of companies with weak earnings, a sign many have shaken off last year’s jitters and are ready to re-embrace riskier stocks in pursuit of outsize gains. Through the first two months of 2019, shares of companies with low earnings stability over the past 10 years...

Investors have driven the eurozone’s most closely followed government bond yield close to negative territory for the first time since 2016, underscoring the increasingly bleak outlook for the European economy. Germany’s 10-year government bonds, known as bunds, yielded as little as 0.04%...

Deutsche Bank AG’s top executives have agreed to hold discussions with rival Commerzbank AG about a potential merger, as Germany’s two biggest banks explore strategic options after suffering prolonged performance and share-price declines, people close to the banks said.The informal talks...

There was a time when you could get a mortgage, regardless of your credit score. There were no-credit loans, loans for people without incomes or assets, and even home loans for people who had recently declared bankruptcy. Unfortunately, these lax lending standards were a major contributor to the nea...

We were having a debate about brand loyalty in a mobile world. The discussion began with talking about how it used to be complex with dealing via branch and call centre; then it was branch, call centre and online; now, it’s branch, call centre, online and mobile. How do you provide a consisten...

Predictions of a better 2019 are rife in the crypto space as enthusiasts remain optimistic. Sonny Singh, the Chief Commercial Officer of Bitpay in a recent interview with Bloomberg predicted the possibility of bitcoin hitting highs of around $15,000 – $20,000 before Thanksgiving Day, 2019. Ano...

Football fans are painfully aware that the amount of actual play time in a 3+ hour NFL game is roughly just 11 minutes, according to a (slightly dated) WSJ article. Put another way, it’s 2 hours and 49 minutes of watching something other than football. Anyone that has ever attempted to raise a...

As the climate changes, so do the concerns and tastes of consumers. In the growing disconnect between how people would like businesses to operate and how they actually do, there is opportunity for banks.
Environmental concerns and anxieties reached new heights last year. To many, the worst cu...

While firms face many challenges in ramping up and realizing the full benefits of intelligent automation, we have found that effective adoption often centers on three main factors. In this Digitizing Finance blog series, we will be looking at different aspects that touch on digitizing the finance fu...

Goldman Sachs Bank USA (now operating under the brand Marcus by Goldman Sachs) has recently launched a savings account promotion. You can receive a $100 bonus when you deposit $10k or more in new money into a new or existing Online Savings Account within 10 days of enrollment, and maintain those fun...

DA began tracking the Star Checking account in July 2010, when the APY was 1.76%. The APY began dropping in October 2010, finally settling at 0.90% APY in March 2013, where it remained for more than four years. The Star Checking account didn’t become competitive until last November, when the r...

CHOOSING A BANK IS LIKE selecting a spouse. You want the relationship to be long, fruitful and supportive. When you have questions, you want a listening ear and thoughtful advice. When you're feeling uncertain, you want transparency, clarity and security. Are you thinking to yourself, "What...

Adoption of blockchain technology seems to be catching on considerably in many countries including Japan. Recently, it has been confirmed that a collaboration of five Japanese banks has been formed to create financial solutions based on blockchain like technology.The collaborative effort will be cal...

Blockchain has its sights set on electronic gaming after disrupting the financial services industry and becoming a bedrock of the cryptocurrency movement. As gamers increasingly purchase digital avatars and tokens to customize their experience, a growing number of observers think blockchain technolo...

THE WORLD OF FINANCE, like many industries, has long been a boys club. But women have been making waves for years and continue to push through gender barriers to become industry leaders. According to a 2018 study by McKinsey & Company with LeanIn.org, women account for about 56 percent of entry-...

From rising customer expectations, to digital disruption, to threats from non-traditional competitors, the same forces that reshape the banking industry demand new thinking and approaches from risk management teams. Enter forward-looking risk executives, who are leading a pivot to toward business en...

There are so many credit cards with competitive rewards available right now, to the point that it’s difficult to settle on a single card. Just look through our credit card reviews and you’ll see cards that are great for dining out, fueling up your car or transferring your balances. Howev...

Ready or not, here comes the green rush! Following the end of nine decades of recreational marijuana prohibition in 2018, Canada became the first industrialized country in the world, and only the second overall, aside from Uruguay, to legalize adult-use weed this past October. When combined with two...

Apple (AAPL) is off its lows, but it hasn’t been an easy ride for Apple stock. At one point it was worth more than $1 trillion, and the company’s stock was immune to the initial fourth-quarter breakdown. Its tanker-like size deflected the growing waves of volatility with ease, seemingly ...

Americans leave a lot of money on the table for the tax man. Taxpayers who get big tax refunds have effectively given the federal government an interest-free loan all year, for example. And investors who fail to make sure their portfolios are as tax-efficient as possible could be losing more of thei...

Eighteen years ago, Professor Emeritus of Finance at Yale University, Roger Ibbotson, founded its investment management firm called Zebra Capital Management. The fund is known for relying on Professor Ibbotson’ original research, which, among many other areas, includes studies on uncommo...

Requirements for traditional qualified mortgage home loans can be fairly strict and limiting. These rules don't represent everyone's financial situation, and there's more than one way to be ready to purchase a new home. This is where other mortgage options prove their worth. Trusted fina...

You probably know about potential IRA tax Opens a New Window. traps related to withdrawals, rollovers, and estate planning Opens a New Window. that can saddle you with penalties and surprise tax bills. Did you know that the type of investments you hold could also hand you a surprise tax bill and pot...

The markets are volatile, well at least more volatile than they have been. The FTSE 100 index has already had two days this year where it has moved by more than 2%, in 2017 it only did that once, in the entire year. This has a tendency to make investors cautious and as a result potentially miss out ...

Some gurus of positive portfolio thinking might suggest that paying capital gains tax is a good thing, because at least it means you have gains to tax in the first place. That’s easy to say until it comes time to actually sell an investment and fork over the dough – and positive thinking...

Americans will face a slew of new rules during the first tax-filing season with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 in effect. Here’s what changed for investors No deduction for investment expenses For taxpayers who itemize, the 2% miscellaneous itemized deduction was a handy catchall bucket for...

The bad bonds of India and the resulting uproar when they were found in provident fund portfolios have changed the face of risk faced by the Indian household. From the risk of fraud, the discussion is moving to poor investment decisions and disclosure. The opening up of capital markets in the early ...

When most of the line items on your credit card statement involve paying for food, it’s time to get a card that rewards you deliciously. The TD Cash Credit Card is a diner’s dream, offering extra cash back whether you go out to eat or cook at home. With a $0 annual fee, this card rivals ...

A home loan is probably the biggest loan that one takes. Not only in terms of the loan amount, but also tenures, which can be 15 years or more? The total final amount that one pays can be double of what was borrowed. But a home loan is among the cheapest loans available, and usually it is the only w...

There are very few retirement products that help you accumulate a retirement nest egg and one such product is the National Pension System (NPS). NPS is a market linked, defined-contribution product that needs you to invest regularly in the funds of your choice. Being a market-linked product, returns...

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the number of total outstanding credit cards at the end of December 2018 was about 44.2 million and transactions worth ₹546.35 billion were conducted through them just in that month. Credit card usage in India is steadily increasing, thanks to interest- ...

Debt mutual fund managers are facing a tough time, with credit risk of their assets rising in the aftermath of the IL&FS crisis. Logically, to offset this rising credit risk, one would expect them to pile on risk-free government bonds or at the very least hold on to existing ones. Strangely thou...

Over the last few years, online brokers have increasingly adopted the mantra “mobile first.” As more investors and traders use tablets or smart phones as their primary platform, online brokers have made efforts to improve their mobile apps, which in turn attract more mobile users. Here a...

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to borrow money to grow your business, applying for small business funding might dampen your excitement. Bank business loan applications are tedious, tiring, and cumbersome, but the more convenient online business loans cost more. Why the difference? Here&rsqu...

Credit cards are either one of the most loved or most hated financial tools, depending on who you speak to. This is possibly an indication of the times we live in with sharply polarised views across multiple items. Supporters talk about the benefits of electronic and non-cash payments that credit ca...

Following the repo rate cut by the Reserve bank of India in its bi-monthly Monetary Policy held on February 7, the banks are likely to reduce interest rates for retails loans such as Home Loans and Car Loans. Setting the stage for lower lending rates, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously ...

Buying a home is often one of the most significant financial decisions of one’s life. Not only does a home bring a high level of financial security, but also saves the homeowner from the day-to-day hassles of living in a rented dwelling. That being said, purchasing a home often needs one to se...

Public Provident Fund, popularly known as PPF is a popular scheme among the financial advisor and investors because of its flexible nature. The tax benefits PPF offers makes it a highly lucrative plan for both small and big investors. The Public Provident Fund plan was introduced in 1968 by the Mini...

WHEN IT COMES TO managing your finances, chances are you use mobile banking tools and apps to check your savings and checking accounts, rather than visiting an old-fashioned bank branch. After all, it's become easier than ever to complete financial tasks, check account balances, make deposits an...

In early February, SunTrust Banks and BB&T announced a merger worth $66 billion that will make the combined institution the sixth largest bank in the nation. Much of the impetus for the merger was continued investment in technology; for instance, as part of the deal, a new corporate headquarters...

Do you carry your bank around in your pocket? There’s no denying that the digital environment has altered the relationship between bank and customer forever – the bank needs to always be on, and if you’re one of the four-in-10 people that has downloaded a banking app like me, the c...

CLAIMING A DEDUCTION for business mileage can be a good way to reduce how much you owe Uncle Sam, but the government is tightening up the rules for tax-deductible miles."It used to be an employee could deduct their mileage, but that is no longer (allowed)," says Bob Charron, a CPA and part...

"An origination fee is a common fee that's added to consumer, commercial and mortgage loans," says Ashley Luethje, sales manager at Waterstone Mortgage in York, Nebraska. "These fees are typically a percentage of the loan amount that a consumer borrows and should be a realistic re...

INVESTORS WITH A well-diversified stock market portfolio looking to diversify their investment holdings may seek tangible assets such as wine, artwork, jewelry, or art, but there are several considerations to make before doing so.It is "an extremely risky proposition at best," says Beau Ry...

In a difficult market, finding the buy becomes even harder. UBS analyst Sean King recently initiated coverage on a range of beverage stocks, and he has a mixed 2019 outlook for the beverage business. King says UBS likes beverage stocks with positive near-term catalysts, superior growth trajectories,...

The marijuana industry is one of the hottest and fastest-growing areas on Wall Street, and that means the best cannabis stocks to buy are getting easier to find. When Canada became the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018, a flurry of legitimate pot stocks began to ...

The chairman of the UK Finance and Leasing Association has told the industry that investing in employee development will be vital to the continued success of the sector as it faces a challenging 2019. Speaking at the association’s annual dinner in London, attended by more than 1,500 people, Ri...

Hello spring, time of new beginnings! In the March edition of the magazine, we are looking at the fresh faces of the industry – start-ups, challenger banks and financial services providers, and all those hoping to get a slice of the fintech pie. We’ve put together a comprehensive list of...

For those looking out for immediate financial assistance involving a large amount of money, the best option is to Apply for a Loan Against Property. These loans are easily processed as the property is considered as collateral against the loan that is sanctioned. The loan amount depends upon the valu...

With the Federal Reserve seemingly at a pause in raising interest rates, some fixed-income market watchers are reassessing their views on investing in debt vehicles. Mark Pfeffer, managing director of fixed-income investments at CLS Investments, says the Fed may be nearly finished or already done wi...

WHILE MARKETS DIDN’T look so appetizing heading into 2019 – stocks had corrected sharply in previous months and some market-watchers were wary of recession – the cold months of winter have been red hot for Wall Street. In the first two months of the year the S&P 500 gained a re...

FIELDING calls from debt collectors is never fun. These callers, who have been tasked with collecting overdue, forgotten or delinquent loans, may phone you during the day, send collections letters to your home or even file a lawsuit for repayment. If the debt is an affordable one you know you forgot...

The average interest rate on a two-year personal loan is 10.7 percent, according to the Federal Reserve. But depending on your credit history, income and other factors, you may be able to qualify for a rate in the single digits. Here's a look at things you can do to score a lower interest rate o...

Not all debt or credit is the same. While this might seem like an obvious statement, it’s important to note because different types of credit generally require different repayment strategies. On a similar note, not all types of credit are accessible to everyone, and understanding why requires ...

Home is where your heart is. Home is where love resides, memories are created, and laughter never ends. A home is built of love and dreams. As they say, “home is not a place; it’s a feeling.” Everyone dreams of having a home which they can call their own. Some people get it easy wh...

You may have heard that credit scores are important, as you’ve likely heard that you should avoid bad or nonexistent scores, but do you actually know how your credit scores impact your life? To help you get a complete picture, we’re covering the different areas your credit scores can pos...

GLOBE, the World Bank Group employee resource group for LGBT+ staff members, turned 25 this year. On February 19, GLOBE held a reception to celebrate its achievements in advancing towards equality and protections for LGBT+ employees at the WBG, and to discuss the challenges ahead. “I have pers...

You’ve narrowed down the search to find your dream home, and now you’re on the hunt for the best mortgage to put those keys in your hand. One way to do it: Work with a mortgage broker who can shepherd you through the lending process from start to finish.You’ve probably heard the te...

It’s often said that banking services for small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) are the “Cinderella” of UK banking: underinvested and undervalued, with customers complaining of a lack of choice and differentiation. We’ve just undertaken some research that casts an interes...

A micro loan is a small, short-term loan that you can use to meet financial needs for your busienss. If you’re self-employed, you may need cash quickly, but not enough to justify taking out a big loan. Maybe you need the money to pay your workers or to pay for a marketing campaign you think wi...

There are many options you can choose from when making a deposit or a withdrawal from the platform and Skrill e-wallet is one of them. It is a digital wallet that supports a wide variety of currencies and allows you to send and receive money online. Let’s have a closer look at how you can regi...

There are quite a few advantages that come with owning multiple credit cards if you can handle the financial responsibility, as we’ve noted before. By using several credit cards, you have more options for earning rewards, access to a more diverse array of perks and an easier time keeping your ...

If you drive to work, enjoy road-tripping, drive professionally or even just have errands to run, you’re sure to be spending some time and money at the gas pump. Why not recoup some of that cost with a gas credit card? Gas credit cards earn cash back or points on gas purchases that can be rede...

Is a 15-year fixed mortgage worth it? The answer, absolutely. A shorter term mortgage—15 years versus 30 years—is one of the best ways to reduce mortgage debt and can save you thousands of dollars in interest payments. For instance, consider the staggering difference between a 30-year mo...

Armchair investors have been selling stock. So have pension funds and mutual funds, as well as a whole other category of investors nonprofit groups, endowments, private equity firms and personal trusts. The stock market is off to its best start since 1987, but these investors are expected to dump hu...

Among the leading U.S. stock market indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has staged a particularly impressive rally from its Dec. 2018 lows, and is now within 3% of its all-time high. Cyclical stocks in the financial, energy and industrial sectors tied especially closely to the economy h...

Three years ago, banks were looking at fin techs with a wary eye. Two years ago, they were appointing chief innovation officers to dip their toes in with proof-of-concept projects or in-house incubators. Now, they are all in. From the open banking regulatory initiatives in the UK and Europe to the o...

Financial planning is a process through which an individual or couple settles goals, estimates any future financial requirements, makes great plans, and evaluates all resources and assets to obtain any financial goals they may have. Also, it includes different factors, for example, cash flow m...

The tool is the $2.5 billion IDA18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window (IDA PSW), launched in July 2017 to help catalyze private sector investments and create jobs in the lowest income countries eligible for financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association. The window combines ...

When you have a bad credit score, getting approved for equipment financing might seem impossible. Although qualifying for traditional equipment financing when you have a low credit score can be difficult, there are options other than typical equipment loans. Many business owners turn to equipment le...

The lot of a small business owner is not an easy one. There are many decisions to make that can affect the success of your enterprise. Determining a pto policy is one aspect that often doesn’t get enough attention. It can be challenging to ensure you stay well-staffed when employees are on vac...

The ongoing flap over tax refunds has once again highlighted a serious issue: Americans use tax withholding from their paychecks as a major savings tool. They give the government more than they owe in income tax throughout the year just so they can get a check the following spring. For many low-inco...

Occasionally, I’ll tap into the insights of my Accenture colleagues to enrich the perspectives I share in this blog. I want to thank Casey Merolla—one of our payments security experts—for working with me to develop this post. You may have heard her speak on this topic last year at ...

You probably don't think twice about swiping your debit card at the grocery store or ATM, but maybe you should. Debit card fraud at ATMs and merchant card readers is on the rise, up 10 percent in 2017 over the year prior, according to FICO. In fact, experts recommend you avoid using your debit c...

The average student loan balance for recent college graduates is nearly $30,000, according to U.S. News data. If you have a high balance, you may consider refinancing your student loans to take advantage of a lower interest rate or monthly payment.But student loan refinancing isn't an option for...

Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals an...

On May 22, 2009, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. You don't have to remember that long title, because it's also known as simply the CARD Act of 2009. The CARD Act was implemented in three stages, but a large part ...

Digital or online marketing is modifying at the rapid rate, making it more complex for the companies to keep up with the latest standards of industry. In fact, around 76% of the people believe that marketing has modified in past two years more than it did in the earlier fifty years.Do you know how y...

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has published draft guidance for market players in the developing cryptoassets sector (see CP19/3). This follows a report published last autumn by the UK’s Cryptoasset Taskforce (consisting of the FCA, PRA and Treasury) that explores the UK’s ap...

House bills with bipartisan support would direct regulators to examine new ways to oversee digital assets and protect them from manipulation, as some lawmakers strive to make financial technologies more mainstream. One bill, the “U.S. Virtual Currency Market and Regulatory Competitivenes...

Market momentum is a basic concept of financial trading. It is the idea that an asset on the move will keep moving in the same direction, more or less, pull-backs and corrections aside. Think about it like this, a market that is trending is said to have momentum in the direction of the trend. Assets...

Stocks are poised to open modestly lower, while the dollar is barely firmer against its major trading partners as trade talks continue and ahead of the release of the Fed’s minutes. As we approach the tail end of earnings season, financial markets have firmly priced in a soft first quart...

Millennials those in their 20s or 30s’ are highly unlikely to think about life insurance. It’s only once you reach milestones like marriage, kids, loans and Googling “affordable term life insurance plans”, etc. you begin to realize that you’re an adult. When you are goi...

With digital banking and peer-to-peer payment services on the rise, it can come as a surprise that people still pay each other using paper checks. For many, receiving a check may be an unusual experience, leading to the inevitable question: What to do with the thing?The good news is that in this day...

The year 2018 saw more and more questions raised about organizations’ behavior, ranging from misuse of data to production of plastic waste. At the same time, consumers have been thinking more deeply about the effects their brand choices have on themselves, those around them and the planet as a...

On Feb. 7, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a press release and on the following day published an accompanying noticein the Federal Registerannouncing a Pilot Project Program Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA Pilot Project Program). According to the press rel...

With the new-found interest in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoins, in particular, creating cryptocurrency exchange scripts might seem like a fanciful idea. The understanding of Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies is nascent at its best, let alone the idea of exchange platforms and exchange scripts. This has pu...

More and more details have since emerged regarding Facebook’s illusive product used in crypto. According to Bloomberg, Facebook had been actively hiring blockchain developers towards the end of last year and is now in the infancy stages of developing a new Stablecoin. For those who do not know...

As the national debt rises, some economists are making a once-heretical argument: the U.S. needn’t be so worried about all of its red ink.The 2017 Republican tax cuts and this year’s Democratic spending proposals have reignited long-simmering worries that the debt is getting too big. Ann...